Scalpel Time

I want all my readers to go over to The Jesus Paradign and read How Jesus Really Did Have Something To Do With The Communal Church in Acts 2. He's working with the passage about the early church "having all things in common."

Every time I've ever heard this passage preached, the preacher tries very hard to undermine the challenge that it presents to us: the challenge to care about one another far more than we care about our things. The Bible, it is often said, does surgery on the human heart, undermining our idols, but for this one passage preachers would like to take the scalpel out of the Spirit's hand. Nate explains how that often happens, and goes on to ask the key question: What does Jesus have to do with it when people radically share their stuff, as in the 1st century church?

Nate says:

Well, what happens when Jesus transforms someone into a new creation and gives them a new mind is they value things differently? They value, for instance, Jesus. Himself. They value him so much that they think the XBox over which they had a fist-fight with another Wal-Mart customer the day after Thanksgiving is.....optional. They also value the things Jesus values. Like people. I mean real people, the people in front of them, not the people on Dancing With the Stars. They actually, by some devil-magic, find themselves willing to lose in the practical matter in order to win in terms of sacrificing for someone else's good. That kind of stuff happens. It really does.

By all means read the whole thing!